#neuro-overlay

This repository contains a Portage overlay for the packets of the NEST framework.

[Portage] 1 is a very flexible package management system that handles installation of packages and their dependencies. The installation of each package is described in an ebuild file which contains the information of where to find the source and how to compile and install a piece of software.

A huge benefit of the portage system is the direct installation from upstream-provided source files and the very flexible package configuration. The source packages can be compiled for the specific architecture and the specification of use-flags enables or disables package features (and changes the installed dependencies accordingly).

Alongside the rich official ['gentoo' portage tree] 2 there is also the possibility to add or replace packages in a so called overlay. This is a package tree similar to the base tree. The overlay will be searched first, so it can provide alternative packets or mask or add packets. When new packages are to be added to the tree, they are usually added to an overlay first, which eventually is merged into the main portage tree.

This repository contains ebuild files for packages related to the NEST framework (see http://www.nest-initiative.org/ and http://www.nest-simulator.org/). Dependencies are included and separate ebuilds are provided if they are not in the gentoo base portage tree.

List of packets

To get a list of packets included in this overlay run

    find . -name "*.ebuild"

in the base directory of this repository.

How to use

In order to use this overlay in a working Gentoo installation simply add the path to the PORTDIR_OVERLAY variable in /etc/portage/make.conf. If such a variable doesn't exist, just add a new line somewhere in the file. So, assuming this repository is located at "/path/to/neuro-overlay", you should add a line like:

    PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/path/to/neuro-overlay"

Once the overlay is known to the system you can use the normal commands to handle packet installation.

    emerge -avt nest

For the packets with ~x86 keyword you need to edit the /etc/portage/package.keyword. The selected options for the packets you set in /etc/portage/package.use as usual, or directly on the command line by specifying a the USE variable:

    USE="music mpi" emerge -avt nest